We don’t believe in a benign God living happily ever after, far, far away. We do not believe in an angry God sitting above just waiting to pounce, and even punish. We do believe in a God who has come very close and invited us into a fraternal relationship that is real, regular and intimate. The spiritual life is a friendly communion between the God of the universe and this poor soul. And this poor soul, in conversation with God, knows himself to be loved with a love beyond my ability to describe.

God is Father, and as a Father, as my Father, is the most gentle and strong of Fathers - affectionate and kind. In a word, perfect. He holds the highest perfection in that He is love itself. The created world gives us every indication of its Creator’s warmth. Even on a dark, rainy day, we can have hope of future sunshine. Yes, even on the darkest day, behind the clouds, the sun still brings life and warmth to the earth. This is but an image and symbol of the love that God has for this poor soul.

God loves us, and still loves us just as we are, precisely because of our sinfulness and worthlessness. Pride does not understand compassionate love. It refuses to admit to being totally worthless. God is only known by a humble spirit. We must approach Him in faith, pure faith—acknowledging the absolute misery of this poor soul and believing in the immeasurably generous and incomprehensible compassion of God for that misery. “Let us believe in all simplicity, in all humility in the wholly compassionate love of God for us poor sinners.” (St. Therese) Our proud knowledge means nothing. We depend on grace. Grace bears us, we do not bear grace.

God’s love is completely different from human love and affection. We love other people because they look good, are kind to us and do nice things for us. God loves us precisely because we are hopelessly lost, sinful and worthless. Our sinfulness is the very means for communion with the compassionate love of God. God loves us because we are worthless and unlovable. Our task is to acknowledge our worthlessness and keep ourselves open and accepting of His compassion so that He may change our worthlessness into love for Him in all His glory. This strips us of pride, because we are no longer looking at ourselves, but to Him. Now we are focused on our beloved. Humility is truth. Once we see ourselves as we truly are before God, we can turn our gaze from our sin and look to the one who loves us, not in spite of our worthlessness, but because of it.

God loves us. He loves, not because of any great deeds that we have done or are capable of doing. He loves us for what we are, and because of what we are. Knowing our total inadequateness, we come to know and believe in the compassion God has for us. Surrendering ourselves to that compassion, His love may then begin to work in us and change us into what it is He desires of us. God is striving to change our souls into love so that we may share His likeness. The effect of God’s compassion in a soul that is open, is the continual changing of the soul with the grace of God’s love, transforming its human wretchedness into Charity.

This, God places in us: No desire for great deeds, nothing out of the ordinary, no ecstasies or revelations, but simply the desire to love as God loves. So, yes, Pope Francis, God does love this poor soul just as it is, because it is so poor. But He does not leave it there. He thirsts for that love in return so that He may transform the poor soul into His own likeness.

There are two very important things that we learn from our Mother Mary. We are devoted to her in her humility and obedience. The Angel spoke and she did not put her trust in her own fears and doubts. She put her trust in the Angel’s promise because she had heard the Word of God before, who chooses the smallest to do the greatest work. She takes our part in taking the part of the couple in Cana, reminding us that the wine of this world has failed us, and that we must draw as servants from the font of our baptism to find the new wine of the new Covenant.

She stood patiently and silently at the foot of the cross. She could not end his suffering, but with her heart she could humbly share in that communion of suffering. She may have wondered why he hurried to the cross when it meant that he would leave her to suffer. The storm that overtook her soul had been prophesied by Simeon years earlier. Yet she waits in faith and hope, humble and obedient, confident in the knowledge of a God who has always been faithful.

She is our mother in the order of grace. “When we appeal to the throne of grace we do so through Mary, honoring God by honoring His Mother, Imitating Him by exalting her, touching the most responsive chord in the Sacred Heart of Christ with the sweet name of Mary.[i] We give ourselves to her because Jesus chose her as the perfect means to unite Him to us and us to Him.[ii] That is who she is; she is the perfect means to unite us to Jesus and Jesus to us. We come to her because she gives us Jesus. It is entirely the initiative of God that we celebrate her. It is entirely the initiative of God that our salvation should be born of her and from her; that our salvation comes through her. So, those who reject Mary, reject what Christ loves. They reject God’s work, and God’s will. If we reject Mary, we reject grace. But God is our only desire and His grace is what we need, and this grace is given to us first, through Mary; she is the one who gave birth to the grace that saves us.

Notes[i] St. Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621),[ii] St. Louis Grignon de Montfort

Author

I am a Roman Catholic Priest from California. I spent 13 wonderful years years as a member of the Province of the Pacific in the Missionaries of the Precious Blood. The outline of my life can be traced here.